“Our Monotonous Sublime: Robert Lowell’s Notebook Poems” by Ernest Hilbert
My long essay on Robert Lowell's late career blank verse sonnets appears in the new issue of Literary Matters. Those poems exerted a potent influence on me while writing my own first… Read More
“The Pardon” by Richard Wilbur
"He should be read in the company of Robert Frost and Wallace Stevens" - Harold Bloom… Read More
“Advice to a Prophet” by Richard Wilbur
"Richard Wilbur is a poet for all of us, whose elegant words brim with wit and paradox.” - Daniel J. Boorstin… Read More
“Directions to the Church” by G.M. Palmer
G.M. Palmer lives with his wife and daughters on a poodle farm in North Florida. Find him online @gm_palmer.… Read More
Ernest Hilbert in Conversation at the Rosenbach
I have been invited to talk a bit about my essay “Austen’s Ring and Shelley’s Heart: Our Fascination with Literary Relics.” I'll discuss rare book collectors and their attraction to objects once owned… Read More
“Dwelling” by Catherine Staples
Catherine Staples is the author of two collections of poems: The Rattling Window (The Ashland Poetry Press) and Never a Note Forfeit (Seven Kitchens Press). Her poems and reviews have appeared in… Read More
“Only Human” by Sammy Jay
Sammy Jay, 29, grew up in Oxford and in Ireland by the sea. He is a rare book dealer with Peter Harrington of London, and has just issued his first trade catalogue:… Read More
“The Common Life” by W.H. Auden
"In times of joy, all of us wished we possessed a tail we could wag." - W. H. Auden… Read More
“Dream Song 310” by John Berryman
"Here is Berryman's masterpiece, one of those books of American poetry that, like certain mountains, has its own weather. Berryman found his form in these songs. They are serious, ambitious and elastic… Read More
Don’t Miss Poets Ryan Wilson and James Matthew Wilson at the Free Library
Ryan Wilson, author of The Stranger World and James Matthew Wilson, author of Some Permanent Things at The Free Library of Philadelphia, 1901 Vine St., Room 108, Monday, October 2nd, 6:30PM… Read More
“Love is Merely a Madness” by Terese Coe
Terese Coe's poems and translations have appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Cincinnati Review, The Hopkins Review, Metamorphoses, New American Writing, Poetry, Threepenny Review, Agenda, Crannog, Cyphers, The Moth, Poetry Review, the TLS,… Read More
“Late Echo” by John Ashbery
"There is a meditative Ashbery, a formalist Ashbery, a comic Ashbery, a late-Romantic Ashbery, a Language poet Ashbery, and so on- even a love poet. No poet since Whitman has tapped into… Read More
“Much On The Cliffs: The Philosophies of John Ashbery” (A Film)
This film was produced in 1997 by University of California Television (UCTV) as a part of the series "Artists on the Cutting Edge."… Read More
“An Afternoon at the Beach” by Edgar Bowers
"Though he was essentially a rationalist, Bowers's poems are marked by extreme aesthetic refinement and an intense feeling for the mystery of things. His teacher and friend Yvor Winters described him as… Read More
Ernest Hilbert Reviews Michael Dirda’s Browsings: A Year of Reading, Collecting, and Living with Books
My review of Michael Dirda's latest book, Browsings: A Year of Reading, Collecting, and Living with Books appears in the new issue of The Hopkins Review, Summer 2017, New Series 10.3, along… Read More
“An English Teacher” by Reed Whittemore
"Whittemore has the saving face of humor. . . . Being middle-aged and academic, Whittemore fights both labels as best he can, and then succumbs. When he is at least experimental and… Read More
“Campo Santo” by Ernest Hilbert
Connotation Press: An Online Artifact exists to publish and promote the finest art and artists available, and to provide a place for a wide variety of art to flourish. From the printed… Read More
“Mid-August at Sourdough Mountain Lookout” by Gary Snyder
"As a boy I was hungry for images of wild nature, for a catalogue of landscapes, of flora and fauna, of minerals and processes, of sensory experiences. 'Pitch glows on the fir-cones'… Read More
“Vacationists” by P.K. Page
Patricia Kathleen "P.K." Page was born in England but raised in Canada. She is the author of more than a dozen books of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction, including The Metal and the… Read More
“Mushroom Hunters, 1957” by Al Basile (with Audio)
Al Basile is a poet, singer/songwriter, and cornetist. He has fourteen solo CDs under his own name, which regularly reach the top 15 on the Living Blues airplay charts following their… Read More
Ernest Hilbert Reviews Willard Spiegelman’s Senior Moments: Looking Back, Looking Ahead
My review of Willard Spiegelman's latest collection of essays, Senior Moments: Looking Back, Looking Ahead, appears in the new issue of Hopkins Review, Volume 10, Number 2, Spring 2017, alongside poems by… Read More
“Hook Road, Delaware River” by John Foy
John Foy’s first book is Techne’s Clearinghouse (Zoo Press). His poems are included in the Swallow Anthology of New American Poets, The Raintown Review Anthology, and Rabbit Ears, an anthology of poems… Read More
“In Ipsley Church Lane 1” by Geoffrey Hill
“In my view, difficult poetry is the most democratic, because you are doing your audience the honour of supposing that they are intelligent human beings. So much of the populist poetry of… Read More
Ernest Hilbert’s “Seasonal Drinking” in Modern Drunkard Magazine
My short poem “Seasonal Drinking” appears in the new issue of Modern Drunkard magazine, Number 61, the Adventure Issue, in the “Postcards from Skid Row” section. I subscribe, but I hadn’t yet… Read More
Ernest Hilbert in the Washington Post
My review of Abigail Williams' new book, The Social Life of Books: Reading Together in the Eighteenth-Century Home, appears in the Sunday, July 16th issue of The Washington Post newspaper. I was surprised… Read More
“Savior Machine” by Tracy K. Smith
Tracy K. Smith is the author of three books of poetry: The Body's Question (2003); Duende (2007); Life on Mars (2011), winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; and Wade in the… Read More
“Watching My Mother Take Her Last Breath” by Leon Stokesbury
"Leon Stokesbury writes with a pure and beautiful clarity, and that clarity is exacting. Whether he is elegiac or irate, magnanimous or biting, amused or exasperated, Stokesbury is always clear about what… Read More
“On The Avenue” by Rhina P. Espaillat
“To Rhina Espaillat the quotidian is no malady . . . it is the source of inspiration. Hers is a voice of experience, but it is neither jaded nor pedantic. She speaks… Read More
Ernest Hilbert Interviewed by a Professional Investigator for the Schuylkill Valley Journal
Poets are sometimes sought for interviews, perhaps not as zealously as are pop stars and politicians, but, still, it happens. I've been interviewed on a number of occasions, a few times on… Read More
“Goths” by Ryan Wilson
Ryan Wilson is the editor of Literary Matters. He has published widely in periodicals such as First Things, Five Points, The Hopkins Review, The New Criterion, The Sewanee Review, and The Yale… Read More